


Sly Foxes

by piplupstudies



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Fluff, Love Triangles, M/M, Oblivious Hinata Shouyou, Pro Volleyball Player Hinata Shouyou, Slow Burn, Third Year Hinata Shouyou and Kageyama Tobio, Volleyball Dorks in Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:28:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27291952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piplupstudies/pseuds/piplupstudies
Summary: Hinata Shouyou and his family moved to Hyogo when he was five years old and there he befriended a certain set of twins. Unfortunately, Shouyou is involved in a horrible accident. Hyogo becomes far too unbearable for the family and they move back to Miyagi. Trying to avoid everything associated with that place, he doesn’t keep in contact with any of his friends.Nearly ten years later, Karasuno High School qualifies for the 2013 Spring High Volleyball Tournament and faces off against the powerhouse Inarizaki from the Hyogo prefecture in the second round. Shouyou tries to make the Miya twins as just opponents, and nothing else.The Miya twins are determined to reforge their relationship with the little orange-haired player, even if they do live hundreds of kilometers apart.None of the characters belong to me, everything belongs to Furudate Haruichi, creator of Haikyuu!!.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou & Miya Atsumu, Hinata Shouyou & Miya Atsumu & Miya Osamu, Hinata Shouyou & Miya Osamu, Hinata Shouyou/Miya Atsumu, Hinata Shouyou/Miya Osamu
Comments: 34
Kudos: 284





	1. Double The Trouble

**Author's Note:**

> Essentially, this is a childhood friend AU, with the Miya twins. The first couple of chapters will be their childhood, exclusively, and then there will be a time-skip.
> 
> WARNING: Not yet, but eventually, there will be spoilers from the Haikyuu!! manga, so please be careful if you haven't read it yet. Otherwise, enjoy!

xShouyoux  
“Shouyou! Why don’t you try and talk to those kids over there?” his mother had asked. Normally, for a small five year old, going up to random children in the park and asking them if you could join them would not exactly be the ideal situation. However, this was Hinata Shouyou. Shouyou was outgoing, reckless, cheerful. In fact, once he started talking with someone new, the other person did not want the conversation to stop. He had the natural ability to draw someone in, with his signature smile and the way he could always make the other party feel comfortable. 

The little Shouyou had made his way to the playground and found himself in the midst of several other people who turned to look his way. The Hinatas were new in the neighborhood and had only recently moved as a result of a certain job transfer. Shouyou took a quick sweep of the playground, seeing that most of the kids were around his age, others looked older. 

“What do you want, little Shrimp?” a taller boy with black hair had smirked. 

“Yeah, we don’t allow little kids over here,” another, identical in appearance to the first, had added. 

“Little? Like you guys are that much older than me,” Shouyou had responded. He was used to this, he was much shorter than the average height for boys his age, and he still very much looked like a baby with his soft appearance and little chubby cheeks. 

The twin on the right had smiled again. 

“Yeah, we just started the second grade and we don’t really allow little toddlers like you to just barge in here.”

“Toddler? I’m about to turn six years old next month! I am going to start school here soon, in the first grade! You guys aren’t that much older than me!” Hinata had to make this black-haired boy shut his mouth. 

“Six? Impossible.”

“It’s true!”

“Okay, well we don’t really know if that’s true, but your little legs won’t be able to catch up with the rest of us. We are playing Freeze Tag right now. You won’t be able to catch up to anybody here,” the twin on the right continued. 

“Oh yeah and if I can?” Shouyou said firmly.

“I doubt it, but if you can, then, I guess you can play with us more.”

Shouyou had just smiled in return. With his appearance, people were always quick to underestimate him. He was clumsy, as shown with the several bruises he has on his legs, but he was also naturally very athletic. 

“1.. 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 8… 9… 10! Ready or not, here I come!” 

After Shouyou was done with his countdown and the rest of the kids of the playground made a considerable distance between them and him, the orange haired child darted off to find his first target. 

xAtsumux  
Atsumu didn’t believe that the kid counting in the middle of the playground could have been only a year younger than him, but what shocked him more was he was not kidding when he said he could catch up. 

The rules of the game were like any other game of Freeze Tag: if you’re tagged then you have to stay still unless a friend tags you again to unfreeze you. Everything within the boundaries of the playground was fair game. 

After the boy started counting, Atsumu sprinted towards the other side. 

“Ugh, ‘Samu, get out of here, I already chose this spot!” he yelled at his brother as they found themselves in the same area. Before either of them could separate or yell at each other more, they heard the words from the tagger indicating that he was starting. 

Atsumu turned around and made direct eye contact with him as he was running directly at him. Brown eyes meeting brown eyes, Atsumu could tell that the tagger had marked him as his first target. He looked like an airhead earlier, but his caramel-colored eyes only said “I am going to get you now.” Atsumu started sprinting faster and turned around the curve of the playground but it was no use. A streak of orange was all he could see before he felt a small tap on his right shoulder. After stopping in his tracks because of the established rules of the game, he turned around to see the tagger already managing to freeze his brother, who was not able to escape in time. Even though it was only a game, the way he ran and quickly looked around for his next victim, Atsumu could tell he was completely serious about it. 

Normally, someone could come and save them both, but it was no use. Within a minute, the tagger had managed to make the playground a museum. There were six statues standing in all sections of the playground, completely helpless. As he got the last one, he took a quick glance to confirm that the boy was indeed the last one.

“I’m done!” he exclaimed, putting both his hands in the air to celebrate. 

Atsumu and the other children gathered around him to find out more about this little bullet who arrived and managed to win the game within a minute. Atsumu managed to take a better look at him now. His most notable feature, his hair, looked soft and fluffy and Atsumu couldn’t help but stare at the way it bounced up and down when he was running around the playground. 

The younger boy turned his head towards Atsumu.

“So, I was able to catch you guys after all, huh?” he smirked. Though at this point, Atsumu would normally say something witty, or at least as witty as a six year old could be, but he didn’t really have anything to say. However, his friends certainly did.

“Whoa, you were so fast out there!”

“I was going to go save Haru-kun, but you ran so fast that you got me before I could!”

“I barely even saw you coming!”

The boy had put his hand up to the back of his head, as if he was almost flustered by the incoming praise. 

“What’s your name?” Atsumu finally decided to speak up, realizing that there were no introductions whatsoever. 

“Hinata Shouyou! Nice to meet you!”

xOsamux 

Both Osamu and his brother had apologized shortly after the incident for their behavior at the beginning. Osamu was glad that Shouyou didn’t really hold a grudge whatsoever, because he was nice to be around with, as he quickly realized. And he wasn’t the only one. 

After the whole scene at the playground, Shouyou had caught the attention of nearly every child in the neighborhood. He was good at pretty much every sport that he played, even if had never played it before. When choosing teams for games like soccer or basketball, Shouyou was the first on everyone’s mental list. But it wasn’t just his athleticism, in fact, in games that required more skill like basketball, he would often trip, drop the ball by accident, or even bump into someone else. However, people simply liked to play with Shouyou because he was Shouyou. 

Osamu was among all of those people who had started hanging out with Shouyou, but every single time, he was just another kid tagging along. Shouyou always seemed to hang out in groups, so Osamu never actually got the chance to talk to him much. When Shouyou’s mother had invited the Miyas over for dinner, even then, Atsumu was the one who did most of the talking and Osamu just stayed aside. To Shouyou, Osamu thought, he was just a background character and didn’t speak to him directly once. 

That is until a certain day in early October. It was getting a little chillier and the children in the neighborhood were instructed to wear proper clothing if they were planning on going outside. Atsumu, completely disregarding his parents, decided to go out in just a t-shirt and some thin pants. Of course, he ended up being in bed for a whole day, sick with a mild cold. 

By coincidence, that day was also the day when Akiko Miya, his mother, had decided to make some onigiri. Osamu was always eager to help out with the task, and really did enjoy every second of it.  
At first, he would stand back and watch his mother in the kitchen, mixing, rolling, wrapping. He tried it on his own one time, and he knew that he didn’t want to stop. 

Obviously, a seven-year-old’s onigiri would not be as refined and perfected as someone who has been doing it for decades. His were often messy, but in the end, he would still eat it. It was food, after all. 

In this specific instance, however, Osamu noticed that his mother had cooked way more rice than she usually did and purchased more extra ingredients. First Osamu started getting excited, then he would have onigiri to make and then eat, but his joy was suppressed by what his mother had said next.

“Oh Osamu, be careful with that,” his mother had warned, pointing at the bowl of mixed rice. “I am planning on giving some of them to the Hinatas.” 

“Why them?”

“Oh Osamu, don’t be like this. Remember how they invited us for that delicious dinner two weeks ago? I mean that really was like a buffet almost! A couple of onigiri won’t even compare to that.”

“Does that mean I can make some onigiri for Shouyou?” Osamu questioned.

“Of course, some of the onigiris will be for Shouyou. He’s such a small boy, but he eats so much!” 

Osamu continued on his second onigiri, but this time he was extra cautious with it. Typically he wouldn’t care if the rice wasn’t wrapped properly, but there was a chance that Shouyou might be eating this. Even then, his looked definitely pathetic compared to his mother’s. 

“It’s alright, Osamu. Just tell Shouyou you made it,” his mother said as the two finished up and she started packing some to give to the Hinatas. 

Osamu was in charge of taking it to them, as his mother had some other work to finish up. Their house was right next door anyway, and he had been there dozens of times. But this would be the first time he would be going without Atsumu. 

Osamu put on a coat to accommodate the colder weather and headed up to the Hinata's house. He walked up the stairs and rang the doorbell, in hopes that he would not have to wait outside too long. 

Hinata’s mother had answered the door. 

“Oh! Osamu-kun! What are you doing here? It’s rare that you are here without Atsumu-kun,” she noted.  
Before the boy could answer, he heard light footsteps from above. 

“Osamu!” 

Osamu couldn’t tell if he was happy or sad about the fact that Shouyou was home. It was at this time that Osamu realized that most of the conservations between the two were initiated by Atsumu in the first place and he didn’t really know what to say to Shouyou on his own. 

After Hinata’s mother insisted that Osamu come inside and hang out with Shouyou, Osamu reluctantly walked inside. She took the large box of onigiri with several “thank you’s” following it and carried it to the kitchen.

“Look, Shouyou, Miya-san has made all of this onigiri for us!” Hinata’s mother motioned for her son to go ahead and start eating as she could tell that he was pretty hungry. She headed upstairs to get her husband. 

Shouyou could only beam at the display of the little rice balls all in a line. After taking out a plate from the cabinet, he went ahead and grabbed the first one at the edge. He almost immediately put in his mouth and Osamu could tell that Shouyou genuinely liked the rice balls. 

Shouyou was a fast eater like his mother had mentioned, so he took a second onigiri from the container. This one, however, was a little more hastily prepared as he could tell some rice was spilling out from its wrapping.

“Oh no, why is this one like this?”

Osamu's eyes widened and he immediately grabbed the ball of rice from Shouyou. The smaller tilted his head with curiosity.

“Shouyou, you shouldn’t eat this one, like you said it’s messed up,” the black-haired boy explained. 

“Was it messed up when you brought it over here?” Shouyou asked. “ I mean the rest of them look perfect. So what happened to that one?”

Osamu's cheeks had turned slightly pink. He wished that his mother had just made all of them in the end. 

“Ummm, that’s because that’s the one that I made. My mother made the rest of them,” Osamu said quietly, half expecting Shouyou to laugh at him or something.

“REALLY!” Hinata beamed. “THAT’S SO COOL!”

Osamu stared back at the boy in front of him. He really wasn’t sure why he was so impressed.

“So you made this? Osamu, you’re so cool! I can’t do anything in the kitchen. Hehe, Kaa-san won’t even allow me to be near the stove.”

Osamu’s cheeks became a little pinker, but this time it was not because he was embarrassed.


	2. It's Okay To Get Hurt In His Place (Birthday Special)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the twin's birthday and it's their first birthday with Shouyou actually in their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. This is honestly an entire filler chapter and can be skipped if you wanted. I just wrote this little scene last month around the time of the twin's birthday (October 5). The next chapter is a bit of a filler too.   
> 2.I had to change the timing of the Osamu and onigiri scene in the previous scene because it didn't match up with my own timeline. So, the last scene took place in the first week of October.

Atsumu hated birthdays.

Everyone else he knew had their own birthday, a single day out of three hundred and sixty five, where they could be the center of attention for a whole twenty four hours. 

Instead, Atsumu was forced to share his special day with Osamu, which therefore made it no longer a special day. Every single year, it was “Happy Birthday Atsumu and Osamu,” and never just one or the other. People always seemed to get matching or identical gifts or what Atsumu thought was even worse: a single gift for the two of them. 

His seventh birthday, Atsumu believed, would end up being no different. It started out as every other birthday, his parents wishing them in the morning and preparing a large breakfast, and their friends coming over later in the afternoon. His parents were taking the group to a laser tag center for a couple hours. This time, however, his group of friends include a certain someone. 

Hinata Shouyou accompanied the twins to their destination, sitting right in the middle of two of them. The twins had each wanted to have Shouyou for themselves, by having the smaller boy sit by the window so he wouldn’t get the chance to talk to the other twin. Shouyou insisted that he sit in the middle, because he was the shorter one, ignorant of the words exchanged between the boys on either side of him.

Another conflict was going to arise at the laser tag center, where the group of ten boys would need to split up evenly. Obviously, Atsumu and Osamu wanted to be on opposing teams, and in the waiting area, they started fighting, physically fighting each other, to decide which team Shouyou would end up on. 

Haru, one of their closest friends, pulled Atsumu off of his younger brother before their parents would step in and narrowly avoid being yelled at on their birthday. 

“Your teams will randomly be assigned, depending on which color lights up on your vest,” one of the employees had noticed the altercation ensuing.

“WHAT!” The now slightly bruised twins looked up from the ground. Each of the boys were given a blank black vest and once the countdown finished, five of the boy’s vests lit up a bright green, while the other half had a bright blue. It was the teams that were the problem. The twins looked down at their chests, both of which had streaks of neon green. 

The other boys stared in horror. They all knew that another brawl would start among the duo.

“Atsumu! Osamu! I’m so excited! I’ve never played because I used to live in the countryside and there really wasn’t any place like this back in Miyagi. Thanks for inviting me!” Shouyou remarked, likely with a large smile, but could not be seen with the dimming lights. 

Both birthday boys were taken aback by their friend’s excitement to start the game that stopped being at each other’s throats and assumed their starting positions at the green team’s base. 

The game was like any other game that would be played by a couple of six year olds to eight year olds. The game ignited each of the boy’s competitive nature and drive to win, even if there was no real award, except the right to gloat. The game also highlighted Atsumu and Osamu’s capability to actually work together and to work together successfully. Though actual twin telepathy, they both believed, was not possible, cooperating together, they managed to shoot down most of their opponents. 

All that was remaining was their newest friend, who was small and nimble enough that even wearing neon lights could not make him that much more visible. The actual playing field was quite small, but there were still several different structures that people could run behind, hide under, climb over. The green duo scoured the entire area, and after failing to find the redhead, the twins deduced that he was likely hiding at the top of the tallest tower, likely waiting for them as well. 

At the top of the tower, however, the twins could still spot the redhead. For such a bright appearance and personality, in near darkness, Shouyou was certainly a tough person to find. Atsumu and Osamu looked over the top of the tower for any sight of blue, but during their survey of the grounds, they heard two beeps indicating that they’ve been shot themselves. Glancing down at their darkened vests to confirm and looking at their weapons which mentioned the status of the user. Dead. 

Whipping their heads around, there stood their smaller friend. With the lights now turning on, slowly increasing visibility, the twins could spot the redhead’s signature smile. A smile that didn’t contain a hint of gloating or boasting. 

“Did you guys think that because it was your birthday, that I would go easy on you?” Shouyou had giggled. 

“Nah, we wouldn’t count on it,” Atsumu responded, with a small smile of his own.

“You know, this is all your fault, Osamu. I told you to watch our backs,” he sneered at his brother, after the boys started to head back they started and Shouyou was not close enough to hear. 

“What the heck are you talking about, that was your job.” Osamu smacked the back of his brother’s head. Atsumu retaliated with a smack of his own. 

The first game had only lasted a couple of minutes, and several more games had followed. The teams again were chosen at random each time, so there were occasions in which Atsumu and Osamu were on separate teams, and Shouyou was on either one of their teams, much to their joy and the other’s despair. 

After about a dozen battles with various outcomes, the boys once again scrambled into their cars for their parents to take them back to the Miya’s house as the sun was starting to fall. Mrs. Miya had once again baked a delicious cake from scratch, but of course, much to Atsumu’s dismay, it was a cake that read “Happy Birthday Atsumu and Osamu.” Every year he secretly wished that the other name would disappear.

The sun was falling quickly and their friends headed home one by one. Shouyou remained, as he lived close anyway, and could return to his house whenever he wanted to. The trio was sitting in the Miya’s backyard, a small one, but had enough room to have a table.

“Shouyou, you want to see something cool?” Atsumu had piped as the three boys were sitting and eating their second helping of cake. 

“Hmmm?” the smaller boy had managed as his mouth was still full of rich dessert. Atsumu had already finished his slice and put his fork down on his now clean plate. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and ran over to the single tree in their backyard. To Shouyou’s astonishment, he wrapped his hands around the base and propped his legs up. With all the strength he could muster, the seven year old pulled up to the lowest branch and shifted his weight so that he wouldn’t fall. He looked down at the other boys on the ground with a large grin.

“Whoa! Atsumu how did you do that? That’s so cool!” Osamu, after seeing his friend’s reactions, had stuffed the rest of his slice in his mouth and swallowed quickly. He too ran up to the trunk of the tree, scrambled up to a low-lying branch, and positioned himself so that he could sit comfortably. Shouyou’s eyes were still lit with amazement and wonder, but Osamu looked over to his brother whose eyes definitely read anger and annoyance. 

Now done with his cake, Shouyou sprinted over to the tree and inspected its trunk. 

“How did you guys climb it? There’s nowhere to hold on to,” he praised. The black-haired brothers glanced at each other and jumped down in unison. Each grabbed one of Shouyou’s arm insisting that he would be the better teacher for Shouyou .

“I mean, both of you can help me right? I mean you both looked so cool getting up there and you both did it so quickly!” The twins had submitted, arguing would likely end up nowhere. They helped Shouyou grab onto the right branches until he too climbed onto the lowest branch. Still slightly scared, Shouyou wrapped his arms around the trunk of the tree. 

The twins had scrambled up the tree again, this time both arriving at the same branch: the one above Shouyou’s.

“Get off, Osamu,” Atsumu hissed. The branches were strong enough to support one child, but not two. Atsumu told his brother to get to the branch on the other side, so that a large trunk would separate him and Shouyou or to get onto a branch that was even higher. Osamu retaliated with a shove of his own. 

“What’s going on up there?” the boy below had asked. 

As if to answer his question, the twins had both come falling down, Atsumu from behind and Osamu towards the front. Several leaves had followed.

“ATSUMU! OSAMU!”

Atsumu and Osamu had finished their special day with ice packs on their backs and bandages on their arms. Fortunately, both had fallen on the grass which had cushioned their fall resulting in no serious injuries. Both the Hinatas and Miyas had made a rule that climbing trees were now forbidden. 

xxxx  
“You know, you would think that after fighting like this and getting hurt they would learn their lesson,” Mrs. Miya had groaned. “I’m so sorry, Shouyou could have gotten hurt too.”

“Haha, don’t worry about it, I’m just glad Atsumu and Osamu are alright,” Hikari Hinata sighed. “I guess most brothers act like this, huh?”

“I suppose so, though I wish they didn’t. By the way, do you think Shouyou and your little one would act like this too?”

Mrs Hinata put her hand up to her lower stomach. Yesterday she got the results back from her test and learned she was pregnant with her second child. 

“Hmm, I don’t know, but you know Shouyou. I think he’d make a wonderful older brother.”

“I have to agree, Shouyou is a literal angel. It’s too early to know if its a boy or girl right? Either way, he or she is extremely lucky to have someone like him as a brother.”

“Yeah, I didn’t tell him about the baby yet, but I know he would be very excited.” 

“Of course, he will. He’s Shouyou after all.”  
xxxx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was honestly inspired to write the tree climbing scene after seeing that picture of second grade Hinata in the manga who was climbing a tree. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!  
> If you liked this, don't forget to bookmark and/or give kudos. I'd really appreciate it.
> 
> I am also always open to criticism in comments.


	3. Yes, You Can Get Sick By Staying Out In The Rain - Every Mother Ever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's raining outside and the trio is heading home from school. However, Shouyou can't seem to find his umbrella.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is also a bit of a filler chapter like the previous one, but I think it's pretty adorable. 
> 
> I was planning on just combining Chapters 2 and 3 because they are super short, but they aren't that related and transitions felt pretty awkward. 
> 
> Also, I believe Furudate confirmed that Atsumu was the older twin so that's who I'm referring to when I mention that. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Shouyou waved goodbye to his teacher and left the classroom. He had volunteered to help clean up the floor and was the last to leave. The sky was gray all day and Shouyou was grateful that his mother had pestered him to take an umbrella.

However, upon leaving the classroom and opening up his small cubby by the entrance, he could not find his umbrella. It was bright orange, matching his hair, and very hard to miss. He was just about to head back inside to the classroom and ask his teacher for help when he saw two very familiar figures approaching him.

“Shouyou!”

“Atsumu! Osamu!” he had grinned after seeing the dark-haired twins. Shouyou had become particularly close with the doppelgangers in the past few months. despite not being in the same year. They had often hung out at each other’s houses and walked to school and back every single day.

“Shouyou! We were waiting for you, what took you so long? Ah, I bet you helped out your teacher after class?” Atsumu had predicted. Shouyou nodded to confirm.

“Okay, you’re done now, right? Let’s go home,” the older boy had said. Before Shouyou could explain his little dilemma, Osamu had already noticed.

“Shouyou, where’s your umbrella? It looks like it's raining,” the quieter twin questioned, remembering earlier that physical education was conducted indoors.

“Oh, so um, like, it seems that I kind of lost it!”

Both twins had raised their eyebrows. After spending time with Shouyou, they both learned that he wasn’t exactly the most responsible person in the world, frequently forgetting even the most mundane tasks like putting his socks on before his shoes. But at the very least, at school, Shouyou would always put his belongings in his cubby in the morning, and remember to bring them home in the afternoon.

“Lost it? Where could you have lost it?”

“Hehe, I actually don’t know,” the smaller boy had said, slightly embarrassed.

The first thing that the twins considered was that jackets and umbrellas do not disappear into thin air. As Shouyou had gone back into the classroom to ask his teacher for help, the brothers had looked at each other, deep in thought.

“Do you … do you think that someone took his stuff?” Osamu had whispered, careful to make sure the smaller boy in the classroom would not hear. His slightly oblivious brother had looked at him with wide eyes and realized that was a possibility.

Shouyou quickly returned, this time with his teacher, who stared at the children in front of her. She then told them that she would do her best to look for Shouyou’s belongings, but until then, the orange-haired kid would have to make do with something else. She requested that either of the twins share one of their umbrellas.

Both twins had jumped at the opportunity to share their umbrella with their friend.

“Osamu! Shouyou can share with me, you had your chance to be with him last week at his house!”

“Yeah right, it’s better if Shouyou shares an umbrella with someone who’s taller. And I’m the taller one!”

“By two millimeters!”

The person of interest stood between the two with a blank look, staring at the bickering brothers.

“Shouyou, who do you want to share an umbrella with?” Osamu finally said.

“Um, that’s okay. You don’t need to share your umbrellas. In fact, it looks like the rain is stopping now anyways.”

“NO!” the twins had yelled. Despite knowing each other for several months now, the twins were always taken aback by their friend’s obliviousness and selflessness. They recalled that time when the twins were fighting over who got the last piece of cake, and instead, Shouyou offered his own so that both twins could have a piece. There was also that instance where the neighborhood children were playing basketball, and there happened to be an odd number of players. Once again, the boy had offered to sit out for the game, so that no one else would be left out. This situation, however, was different. The twins couldn’t let Shouyou just walk home to his mother, dripping head to toe with rain, which was in fact, not stopping anytime soon.

Deciding that it was getting late, and both their parents would be waiting, the twins compromised on a single scissors-paper-rock game. Atsumu smirked as he wrapped his paper around his brother’s fist. Shouyou and Atsumu walked slightly ahead under a bright yellow umbrella, while Osamu tailed them under a red one.

The bleak sky started to pour, the drops tap-dancing on their umbrellas. The street started to fill, their little shoes slowly soaking. Their vision blurred, and the trio hurried in hopes that they could get home before the streets would completely transform into a river. That’s when Osamu noticed it. As the children passed by the playground where they had once met Shouyou, there stood a group of children from their school. They appeared to be a lot older than them, likely fifth or sixth graders. But it was what was in their hands, that caught the quiet boy’s attention. Through the streams of water, he could spot, unmistakably, a bar of orange, in one of their hands.

Atsumu and Osamu dropped off Shouyou at his house. After seeing the door shut, Osamu grabbed his brother’s arm and quickly narrated what he had seen at the playground. Without thinking twice, the twins had hurried down the steps of Shouyou’s house and sprinted towards the playground. Unlike Shouyou, both of their parents had worked and would not be coming home for a couple hours.

As the two had approached their destination, they noticed that the older kids were still there, taking shelter from the rain underneath a playground apparatus. Osamu was correct, the thieves were among the oldest in the elementary school, sixth graders. Even then, the smaller boys marched forward, in the rain, this time without their own umbrellas for protection.

“Hahaha, tiny brat, always thinking he’s so cool.”

“I don’t know who he thinks he is, thinking that he can just join any group, any game.”

“And he still looks like an actual baby.”

“Not just a baby, he even looks like a little girl!”

In the midst of the thieve’s nasty conversation, a certain set of twins overheard and walked up to the group. Now completely soaking wet, they stopped in their tracks. They actually did not plan anything regarding what to actually do when they confronted these guys.

“Ah, look who it is, its those twins that always hang out with the brat,” one of the sixth graders noticed the black-haired boys as they stood in the rain.

“Yeah, why the heck do you even hang out with that lame baby?” a taller one with brown hair had smirked.

Atsumu and Osamu honestly didn’t pay attention to whatever their opponents were saying. Their eyes were fixated on the folded up umbrella in the third boy’s hand.

“That’s not yours,” Atsumu glared pointing to the stolen object.

“Yeah, so? What if it isn’t? What are you going to do? Take it from us?” the tallest one had looked down. The twins were the tallest in their own class, but at the playground, among their upperclassmen, they had looked especially small.  
“Yeah we just needed to teach that little baby a little lesson, and what better way to do it than by making him walk home in the rain?” the one holding the umbrella smiled.

“Lame.” The older boys raised their eyebrows.

“What did you two say?”

“Lame. We said lame,” Atsumu declared. “It’s lame that you really decided to steal an umbrella from someone younger than you.”

“What did you say?” one of the older boys repeated.

Osamu stood silently, his fists clenching. He felt cold and all his clothes were saturated, and wanted to do anything to get out of there as quickly as possible and go back home. But then he heard what the boys in front of him had to say, and only a word was constructed in Osamu’s mind: pathetic.

The bully closest to them had challenged his brother, but Osamu could not wait any longer. He shoved his brother aside, put up his already clenched fist, reached as high as it could go, and slammed his hand into their tormentor’s face. He fell back, partly because of the impact, partly because of shock, and partly because of the slippery ground.

One of his friends spat out words that shouldn’t come out of the mouth of a sixth grader’s, and the other bent down to help his fallen comrade. Atsumu gazed at his brother, and for the first time in his life, it may have been in awe. As if he didn’t want his brother to seem cooler than him, Atsumu swung back his leg and bashed it against the shin of the guy that was still standing and holding Shouyou’s possession. Half a second later, he was no longer holding it.

Osamu quickly grabbed it and tugged on his brother’s sleeve.

“Listen, if you come after Shouyou again, we’ll tell everyone that you were beaten up by a couple of second graders,” the older twin sneered and started to walk away with his brother. They had the umbrella now, they just didn’t know what to do with it after running back home. Once slipping inside their house, Atsumu grabbed a plastic bag to keep the dripping wet umbrella inside, for the time being. They could deal with it a little later. The second task was to take a nice hot shower because if either one of them caught a cold, then they would definitely be receiving a nice reprimanding session from their parents, as Atsumu had literally caught a cold the week earlier for the same reasons.

The next morning, a certain bright orange umbrella magically appeared in a certain boy’s cubby.

“Atsumu! Osamu! You wouldn’t believe it! My umbrella’s back! And I thought I had checked here already!”

“Well, maybe you didn’t check well enough,” Atsumu insisted.  
“Yeah, you always forget the little things like this, silly Shouyou,” Osamu claimed.

The twins had come out of their great battle unscathed, fortunately. After the spectacle they had made on their birthday, their mother had scolded them for quite some time. This time, luckily, neither of them had any bruises or wounds.

Though two days later, Mrs. Miya had walked into the twin's room to wake them up for school, but both had seemed to have come down with a nasty cold. 

"These boys really do never learn do they?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought this chapter was really cute. The twins are really protective of their little tangerine. 
> 
> Also, how much of their childhood do you guys want to see? I will get to their high school years and the years that are in the manga, where actual romance will happen. However, I'm not exactly sure how long to stretch their childhood year, because Shouyou is eventually going to move away. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!  
> I'd appreciate any bookmarks, kudos, and comments!


	4. It Was (Not) Love At First Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata Shouyou later becomes a volleyball player in high school after seeing the Little Giant, but most people are unaware that he did encounter the sport long before that. Unfortunately, he never really got hooked on to the sport back then.

The weather took an even sharper turn and by December, very few of the children in the neighborhood had stayed out. Most had opted for remaining at home, or for most of them, turned to indoor sports. 

For Atsumu and Osamu Miya this had meant heading to a local gym, slipping on some knee pads and special shoes, and playing volleyball.

Volleyball had caught their interest early on. It required many different skills. It tested their strength, their stamina, their attention to detail. For the twins, more importantly, it was a “measurable” activity. Volleyball is a sport in which a set could end at 25 points, and although it didn’t matter who scored, the twins had immediately turned each time they played into a challenge. 

As soon as practice started, the boys had counted how many serves they could get in the bounds of the court. They measured who could jump higher, who was faster regarding running from one side of the court to the other. The game had completely fueled their already prominent competitive drive. 

Obviously, as elementary school students, they didn’t participate in high-level volleyball competitions, but there were still games. Games meant there would be winners and there would be losers. 

Several months earlier, the twins had invited Shouyou to their gym in hopes that he would join. Recalling their first meeting, Shouyou had the athleticism; he was fast and seemed to never run out of energy, traits that define a good player in a fast-moving sport such as volleyball. However, like other sports that require high levels of skill such as basketball, Shouyou had struggled. No one had expected him to perfectly receive the ball on the first try, but at the very least he should have been able to play at least two minutes without getting hit in the head with the ball. 

Someone had served the ball over the net. The net was a lot lower than a regular net to accommodate the tiny players. The ball had headed straight towards a particular redhead who had put his hands in front of him. His right hand was in a fist and his left hand was gently wrapped around it. Unfortunately, the ball had not gotten anywhere close to his exposed forearms and flew right into his head. The force was not heavy enough to make him fall, but he cried out in slight pain and put his hand up to his nose, the point of impact. The ball flew a couple of feet away. 

“Shouyou!” The twins had immediately rushed over to their tiny friend who looked like he was a millisecond away from tearing up. 

“Um, sorry! I didn’t mean to do that,” the server on the other side said through the net and slightly bowed. Shouyou put his hands down and apologized himself with a sharper bow of his own. 

“Uh, no that was my fault. You served, right? I should have been prepared. But I can still play,” he assured with a large smile. The twins started protesting, but after one of the coaches inspected the child, she agreed that it’s alright if he could still practice. There didn’t seem to be any sort of indication that he just got hit in the head with a ball and that was probably because the serve itself was nothing more than a light toss. 

The twins were more worried about how Mrs. Hinata would react if Shouyou had come home with another bruise. More importantly, they were concerned about how their own mother would react. Mrs. Hinata was a really understanding woman and she wouldn’t be that upset if Shouyou got hurt. It was a sport after all. 

His nose seemed to be fine; it wasn’t like Shouyou got hit with a spiked ball, so they decided that they could continue playing. It wasn’t an actual game of course, the students were just practicing serving and receiving the ball over the net. Because of the lack of pressure and lack of score keeping, Shouyou insisted that it would be fine. 

“Ehhhh, the net is even taller up close!” Shouyou remarked when the first break rolled around and he started exploring the gym.

“I mean this is actually a lot lower than a real volleyball net. Probably like two meters lower! Yer just really short Shouyou,” Atsumu grinned.

“Atsumu, I know I’m short. I get it,” he sighed. “Eh, so you have to jump over the net to play, then ?” 

“Hm, Shouyou yer so tiny that ye probably can’t play those other positions, like the spikers and the blockers. There’s always the libero, though. I think they made that position for small people like you. They don’t need to jump over the net.”

Blockers? Libero? The terminology and jargon overwhelmed the smaller boy. Volleyball requires good technique and more importantly persistence and patience, which Shouyou wasn’t exactly known for. He was tired of just standing there and practicing his receiving from, without actually doing anything. 

By the end of the day, it seemed as though even Shouyou’s stamina had run out. He was tired and even after a couple of hours, nothing seemed to click. He looked down at his forearms, which were not only red; the blood vessels had also burst leaving several spots down the surface. The twins were worried once again about his parent’s reaction. The redness and spots were normal for anyone starting out with the sport and would eventually disappear with repetition, but the blood vessels were always alarming. After all, it looked like someone had beat them with a stick. Atsumu and Osamu’s arms were 

“Shouyou, do ya think you’ll join us then?” Atsumu asked while the trio was waiting for Mr. Miya to pick them up. The sky was still pink despite being relatively late in the day. The humidity from the summer months had gotten to them and the three were waiting quite impatiently to be picked up. 

“Hehe, I don’t know honestly. I’m not sure if I’m cut out for this type of sport,” he chuckled and swatted a mosquito away.

“I mean it's only the first day, right. Ya would get better if ya practiced more?” this time Osamu spoke up. 

“Uh, see the thing is that if I joined you guys here, then I wouldn’t be able to have time to play other games you know.” The twins couldn’t necessarily disagree because ever since they had started playing the sport they had spent less time with their other friends in their neighborhood. 

“Yeah, but I guess then maybe I'd get the chance to spend more time with you guys then!” exclaimed Shouyou not knowing that he had made the twins extremely happy. They had both decided to grab onto their friend who was standing between them and tried pulling him into a large hug. Atsumu and Osamu glared at each other and Shouyo was not aware of the silent brawl that was ensuing inches above his orange hair. 

“Getting along as usual, huh,” a car had pulled up to the front doors of the gymnasium. Mr. Miya had rolled down the window and unlocked the back doors so his sons and their friend could climb in. 

Now several months since Shouyou’s first encounter with volleyball, he still had not exactly got hooked on the sport. He really did enjoy the time he spent playing just not the sport. Not only did he get the chance to be around Atsumu and Osamu more than usual, he managed to somehow befriend nearly everyone else at their gym. The coaches were always eager for new students. Shouyou did put in effort into virtually everything he did and was always the most energetic and loudest. They also did see a great amount of potential in him based on the skills he had already established. 

However, it did not seem like Shouyou was there to stay, at least not permanently. Most of the other kids part of the program were training to eventually join a volleyball club when they graduated from elementary school and headed onto junior high. Shouyou really did not seem like he wanted to do that. 

The twins were slightly upset, known to everyone around them but Shouyou. Thus, by the time winter rolled around, the twins went to volleyball practice by themselves. What neither of them expected was to see Shouyou sitting in the bleachers during one of their first games. The games were more casual, but coaches and advisors still encouraged healthy competition to scout out players who would make it far. Neither wanted to force Shouyou into doing anything he really did not want to. 

Atsumu and Osamu were excellent players. Osamu was on a slightly higher level of skill and talent than his brother, but nonetheless Shouyou had given them equal compliments. 

“I’ll become better than ye one day,” Atsumu muttered at his brother who was still waving at the redhead sitting in the bleachers and waving. He had come with both of his parents, which had shocked Atsumu, thinking they likely had better things to do than see some elementary school students passing a ball around. 

Osamu just shrugged his shoulders in response and both had taken up their respective positions on the court. 

During a particularly long rally, a rearguard player passed the ball nicely over to the younger twin who then set it over to Atsumu. Atsumu then hit it as hard as he could over the net. The referee blew his whistle indicating that their team secured that point. 

“Yay! Atsumu and Osamu!” they heard from their left. Peering over they found their friend with his hands up in the hair in fists. He had stood up for whatever reason. 

“I really wish he wanted to play,” Atsumu thought. But both twins had left it alone. If Shouyou didn’t fall in love with the sport, neither really had any right to push him further. 

Following the game, which the twin’s team had won with a large margin, Shouyou immediately ran up and started jumping up and down. 

“Whoa! Osamu you were like WHOOSH and then Atsumu hit it over and the ball went BAM! Gwaa! And then the ball came over and you put your arms out to receive it! And…” Shouyou continued for a minute straight. To be honest, neither twin nor the smaller boy’s parents could really ever understand everything that Shouyou was saying; it was as though he had created his own language. The twins were still delighted at the rush of compliments. Shouyou wasn’t doing it on purpose of course, he just had some strange ability to praise anyone the correct way so that he or she would be feeling warm and fuzzy, which was much needed in the December weather. 

The twins were not delighted at the fact that after Shouyou’s monologue of plaudits, he then walked up to the other members of the team and their own families and started praising them too. Shouyou was already well acquainted with pretty much every member and even each of their parents found the little child too adorable to ignore. 

“Shouyou, let’s go, it’s getting late,” Atsumu suddenly appeared at his side while he was commenting on one of their teammate’s serves. The dark haired boy tugged on his arm in the direction of his brother and family. 

“Oh okay, Atsumu. But wait, I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Takashi!” 

“Ya see him nearly every week, ya can just see him later,” he muttered. Even then, Shouyou turned his neck slightly and waved his free arm. Takashi smiled and reciprocated with a smile of his own. Atsumu snapped his own head around and glared intensively at his teammate. He and Shouyou then joined the people waiting for them by the door and the five-headed outside together. 

The wind immediately slapped their faces upon leaving the safety of the indoors. Before leaving, all three children had made sure to bundle up properly and wore several layers of clothing. 

Both of the twins parents, unfortunately, had work today and neither could make it to their game. The Hinatas had volunteered to be in their place and the three children piled into their car. 

“Atsumu, Osamu, you both are pretty talented boys, aren’t you?” Shota Hinata had smiled at the twins in the rearview mirror while everyone was getting their seatbelts on. 

“Yeah they are, aren’t they, Dad? They were so cool! Osamu did that, and Atsumu did this!” Shouyou had started before the twins could speak up themselves. He started flailing his hands about trying to replicate the twin’s movement in the game. 

“Shouyou, that’s nice, but can you please put on your seatbelt?” his mother had sighed seeing that her son was still unrestrained. 

“Oh right,” he had mumbled. “But I hate the middle seat.”

Normally he had gotten the whole back seat to himself, but when the twins had tagged along he had to be sandwiched between them. Despite a pout on his face, he snapped his belt into the slot and faced forward ready for his father to start the engine.

“Shouyou, yer are the smallest so it’s best if ya sit there,” his mother affirmed.

“Shouyou, I can take that seat if ya want,” Osamu said quietly. Atsumu was shocked. But more than that he was frustrated that he didn’t think of that first. On top of that, if Shouyou had switched with his brother, then Osamu, the greedy idiot, would have Shouyou to himself for the car drive home. Atsumu wouldn’t let that happen. Fortunately, before Atsumu could argue, another voice had turned down the idea. 

“Oh no, Osamu dear, it’s alright. I think it’s just that Shouyou isn’t used to sitting with someone else there. You just stay right where you are.” Mrs. Hinata had quickly spit out. 

“Right, Shouyou, you’ll have to get used to having someone by your side soon, you know,” this time his father had said. And was right, his wife was a few weeks pregnant at this point, although not too noticeable through her thicker winter clothing and layers. Shouyou was going to be an older brother, though it would be several months until then.

“Right, Shouyou so when yer sister or brother comes, ye have to be a good big brother,” Atsumu advised. “Don’t fight with them.”

Shouyou tilted his head slightly.

“But you always fight with Osamu, don’t you?” Both adults in the front seat held back a chuckle and Atsumu was left with his mouth hanging. He really did not know how to respond to that. 

“I guess it’s only natural for siblings to fight. I mean I don’t have the perfect relationship with my sisters,” Mr. Hinata had mentioned. 

“Yeah, I can’t help but agree. Even then, you both always seem to be fighting, but when you guys actually play, you work well together,” Mrs. Hinata had noticed. 

“Yeah, I suppose so,” the quieter twin started.

“But we still have so much to work on,” Atsumu interrupted his brother. 

“Yeah, but you’re so good! I bet that when you grow up, you guys are going to become really famous volleyball players!” Shouyou eyes had brightened. 

“Even when we grow up, are ya going to cheer us on?” Atsumu smiled, already aware of the answer.

“Obviously, I’ll always be there to cheer you guys on. And that’s a promise!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> I'd appreciate any kudos and comments!  
> Also, the childhood part of the story will be ending soon and there will be a timeskip coming up.


End file.
